5 things about Looper

This is true for every review, but for this one especially: **SPOILERS ON**

1. Based on the trailers and general critical reaction I was pretty sure I would love this film. I was surprised by the reasons I loved it, though. I thought it would be hard sci-fi that left me thinking myself in circles, à la Primer. I was not expecting to feel so many things, so strongly. Bruce Willis has several scenes that got me emotional, but nothing comes close to the climactic scene of the film. When Syd is losing his temper and about to destroy everything and Sara calms him down telling him, "It's okay, I love you." Ripped my heart out. And then when they raised the stakes in that scene ever higher... my god. 

2. Joseph Gordon Levitt's performance was different than what I was expecting- in a good way. I've come to expect high profile actors to be the same character in every movie, but in different contexts. While Tom Cruise is sometimes a secret agent and sometimes a sports agent, he's always Tom Cruise. JGL was not himself in this movie, he was Bruce Willis; and his Bruce Willis impression was excellent. He either had prosthetics/makeup, CGI, or both altering his face but it worked. He was able to fully inhabit his character without me thinking on some level, "Hey, that's the guy from 10 Things I Hate About You."

3. Someone on Twitter made the point that Looper's portrayal of the future feels genuine- the future wouldn't come all at once, but in fits and starts. Huge futuristic glowing skyscrapers are juxtaposed against abject poverty and the same dingy brick strip clubs that we have now. Hoverbikes are available for purchase to those who can afford it, but people are still driving the aged versions of the cars we have today, retrofitted with pipes leading from solar panels on their roof into their gas tank. 30 years is too short a time span to completely obliterate our culture and aesthetics as we know them. The juxtaposition between old and new also seems to serve as a commentary on today's widening inequality. Aesthetically, it is what Dredd  3D attempted to be, but with far better execution.

4. Given that this movie seems to explicitly reject the idea of alternate time-streams (as evidenced by how Jeff Daniels deals with Seth not closing his loop), I struggle to make sense of the time loop that this movies plot rests on. The film addresses this confusion in the scene where Young Joe and Old Joe meet in the diner. Young Joe is trying to make sense of how he could affect the future of the man sitting across from him and Old Joe yells something to the effect of, "SHUT UP, IT DOESN'T MATTER!!" If this movie was any less entertaining I would call bullshit, but given how well done the film is I am willing to accept that as an explanation.

5. Looper is full of moments and revelations that re-contextualize what has come before. When you first hear Syd say that his mom died because he wasn't strong enough, you hear the common sentiment of a child who has experienced tragedy and can also see the groundwork being laid for his eventual life as a crime lord. Later when his powers are revealed, it seems as if what he is saying is that his powers were not yet strong enough to stop whoever harmed killed his "mother." In the scene where Syd kills the Gat and Sara tackles Young Joe out of the way to save him, we learn that what he really meant is he wasn't strong enough to stop himself, he lacked self-control. This completely re-contextualizes his earlier comments which gets to the heart of the nature vs. nurture and "would you kill Hitler as a baby if you could" debates presented in this film (along wiht many thers). In this same way, Old Joe is re-contextualized from hero to sympathetic villain. The way the plot is structured forces the audience to interact non-linearly with the events of the film, mirroring the time travel elements of the story. That my be a stretch, but I'm sticking with it.